Asiri Media

Health, Faith and Human Dignity .  In the 1300s, the bacterium Yersinia   pestis , almost decimated the population of Euro-Asia. Lost for hope and for direction, all that most people could do was go on processions and vigils –praying for God to rescue them from the hands of “the black death” who was pictured going around harvesting souls – no one was safe; no refuge was in sight. In the 1500s, when small pox hit Mexico and South America, “the Mayas in the Yutucan Peninsula” for instance, “believed that three evil gods, Ekpetz, Unnankak and Sojakak, were flying from village to village at night, infecting people.” In parts of pre-colonial West Africa, growing infant mortality either from sickle cell or other related illness forced people to conclude that some children were inflicted with an evil spirit – the Yorubas called them “Abiku,” the Igbos called them “Ogbanje” – which marked them as “born to die.” When HIV hit the world around the 1900s, many believed that it wa...

The house, because it is so arresting, led to my arrest as its owner and builder. By Moyo Okediji.                               I. I was arrested by the Nigerian Police on July 5, 2018. To be fair to them, they were angry with my new building, the ÀKÒDÌ ÒRÌṢÀ, in Ile Ife. The police landed in trucks, arms, uniforms, and plain clothes to storm the construction site. There were about ten workers at the site when the police came. The previous day when the police arrived the workers fled into the surrounding bushes, abandoning their tools, unused building materials, and the entire construction area. “Who is the owner of the house,” one of the plain-clothed officers barked at the cowering plumbing workers, the master bricklayers, carpenters and laborers at various positions around the building. But this time the workers did not flee. Sticking to their plan, they carried their union identity cards wi...

De Yuka Meal is set to launch at The Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) . Speaking with our correspondents yesterday, De Yuka CEO, Mr. Emmanuel Okereke, revealed that the launching was scheduled for 30th July. And it will be kicking off at 2:00PM with a road rally from the NDDC Hostel. Mr. Okereke described De Yuka Meal as a product with the  three core attributes students on University campuses often long for in food products. And these, according to him, are: Quality, Quantity, and Affordability. De Yuka Meal is a unique blend of well refined garri, milk and sugar, neatly sealed up in very attractive packs, so that students can rustle up an instant meal with just a N100. For enquiries, contact them at 07018900769.

Little PRECIOUS was almost crippled when she was hit by an over-speeding bike on that road.   OWERRI —One of the four communities surrounding The Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) , Eziobodo boasts the largest population of students from the institution living off campus. And this is despite the deplorable state of Eziobodo road, the major link road between the community and the university. The dirt road, coupled with poor drainage system, had had residents literally swimming in large pools of water during the rainy season for years. It was so bad that student’s vying for various positions in the SUG used constructing makeshift wooden bridges across puddles in various places as campaign strategy every year. Fast forward to 2017, and there is a tarred road in place of the wide, intractable dirt road. We could talk about the road being quite narrow and drainage system being poorly finished, perhaps due to insufficient funding; but there is something on the g...